Alyssa Milano Vs. Wendy Williams: Is Breastfeeding In Public Wrong?

Over the last number of years Who's The Boss star Alyssa Milano, has made it her goal to noramlize breastfeeding. She has made it her mission to re-define how society reacts, out of habit, to moms who openly breastfeed in public.

Milano uses her Instagram to show the world that women should be able to breastfeed in public without being discriminated against or made to feel like she is doing something wrong. It shouldn't be expected that mothers will leave the room when it’s time to feed or to drape over a cover to hide the natural act of feeding one's baby. If you haven't had a child, you can't understand the bond that breastfeeding establishes between a mother and a child.

It can be easy to fall into the popular opinion, that breasts are only seen as a sexualized part of a woman’s body, and that seeing them out in the open is ‘too much information’ or ‘disgusting.’

These comments have been following Alyssa Milano around for quite some time, which she discussed during an interview with HuffPost Live on Wednesday, January 6th. She's not shy about sharing images of her family on Instagram—as a mom to Milo, 4, and Elizabella, 14 months, she often shares candid photos of her nursing. It is these photos have received backlash in the past, as users claim that she is ‘over sharing’ and showing too much. If we are supposed to be showing our authentic selves online, documenting our private moments, why can't this be apart of it?

Milano admitted how backwards the thinking is towards breastfeeding. She stated, “It’s so crazy to me how the mentality is so archaic where people are just not comfortable with women breastfeeding.”

During an appearance on The Wendy Williams Show, host Wendy Williams embodied this criticism, revealing on air to Alyssa that it makes her uncomfortable to see a woman breastfeeding in public. “I don't need to see that,” Wendy told her. “Because, I just don't want to.”

Alyssa disagreed and tried to show why it is so ridiculous to have to hide your child while feeding them. “But would you eat under a blanket?'”

“What I would do is I would go to the car...” Wendy claimed.

“You would go feed your baby in the car?” she asked, taken aback. “Not on the bench in the front of the big box store,” Wendy responded.

Alyssa went on to ask her why it's okay for Miley Cyrus to be on plastered on every website with nothing more than suspenders covering her breasts, and yet it's not okay for mothers to publicly breastfeed or show such images on social media.

“I don’t know why I feel this way,” Wendy admitted. “Breastfeeding is only a particular amount of time. The rest of your life, your breasts are sexual things.” Wendy even went so far as to call breasts 'fun bags'.

“But biologically, they're not made for sexual things. That's what we've done to them,” Alyssa argued.

We've been conditioned over time to see the female body as the embodiment of sexuality, for femininity to be lusted over. What women do with their bodies and how women appear is considered to be justifiably defined by society. However, it shouldn’t be.

I applaud people like Alyssa who are trying to uproot this thinking. Maybe with time advocators, like Alyssa, will be able to knock some sense into these critics and make the public realize that breast is best, even in public!